My First Driving Experience in Birmingham!

So I was driving from one of our missionary meetings and their were 4 of us in our car. We were behind another missionary vehicle that was full with 4 missionaries also! Well we are driving and we are getting ready to get onto the free way and just so you know they don't have the grid system down here and so there are stop lights on the free way and all kinds of crazy things. So we come up to a stop light and there is a yeilding lane to enter the free way on and it isn't very long. Well the car of missionaries in front of me start to enter the free way pretty slow and the traffic was stopped at a stop light. Well the stop light just turned green and allowed them to start to go so we either had to get onto the free way or we would be stopped for a long time trying to enter the free way. the firs vehicle in the first lane closes to us is a Semi-truck and so he was taking a while to get going and the other missionaries are going just the right amount of speed so that they would make it in but I wouldn't so I sped up and merged early so that I wasn't waiting. Well then I had to merge again so that the other missionaries could merge and not get stuck. So I go over one lane at the same time a car from lane 3 comes into lane 2 the one I am merging into. SOOO I try to go back to lane 1. Well the other missionaries were already in lane 1 so here I am in the middle of lanes 1 and 2 and there are cars on either side of us. Mean while the other three missionaries in the car are doing this AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! not helping at all. So I floor it and get ahead of them so that i can have me own lane. keep in mind that the road is packed with vehicles. It is rush hour. So i speed up and start to merge back into lane 2 again. Well once again another car comes flying in not paying attention and almost hits us so I speed up againg and go into lane 1. Well now I am going about 60 in a matter of not very far and the traffic ahead of me is now at a dead stop and I didn't see that they were slowing down due to me dodging other vehicles so I have to hit the backes and some how managed to make a graceful stop while merging into another lane (lane 2) to keep from rear ending a utility vehicle. The whole time the other missionaries are screaming for their lives and after everything calmed down they were praising my driving and said I was the best driver ever and they would never doubt my ability to drive and I am over here thinking you guys have no Idea what was going on in my head the whole time ( all I was thinking was go faster go faster get more speed haha)

So we make it to the mission office to get some supplies and we are headed home now and we are getting onto the free way again the normal way. Where you just get to an on ramp that makes a big circle and as we start to enter I start saying "Why am I driving? I'm from a small town in arizona and have never driven in a city the size of birmingham...." As I am in the middle of saying this a car comes flying around us not in a lane and is going so fast that he is about to flip is car so he pulls the E brake and does a full U turn...... Around us!!!! and I just keep talking and stay in a casual voice and go around the guy and keep driving and once again the missionaries in the car are going ahhhhhh!!!!!! The funny thing is all I thought about in that one was another person going out of control on snow or ice. I didn't even think about it.

That is my driving experince in a big city though!